Friday, May 9, 2014

It has been a good week of planting.  The only corn that remains to be planted is at the Lett and Watjen farm locations, where we are waiting on Shepard Construction to finish some conservation work.   They should be able to complete the tile installations and the construction of some WASCoBs in a couple days.   Hope so, at least!

Also, there are only three soybean planting locations left to do, and after this rainy spell, we can tick those off the list.  Two days’ work could get that in the “finished” column.

One problem.  The soybeans planted in April had a big 2.8″ rain on them, and the soil is crusted pretty hard.  Those may need to be re-planted… unless this rain event softens the crust to allow them to emerge.  We were very confident the days those were planted, but the big rain brought this challenge.   We will know in a few days if some replanting will be necessary.

The Greenstar GPS system has been working very well again this spring.  It provides the automatic guidance for the JD 9330 that we use on the soybean no-till air drill.  It also controls the population of the planted soybeans by virtue of the prescription maps.  And then it records all this information as you plant, creating a map that will be transferred to the combine in the fall.  That way, the combine will “know” what soybean varieties are planted in each field, and recognize and record the harvest information specific to each variety.  VII (Very Important Information!)

Here is what I see as I am planting soybeans.  I monitor 3 pages of information… page one 95% of the time, and page two and three as needed.  When I enter a field to plant it, the set-up information is entered into the GS2630 screen, with farm and field name, the variety of the seed, the planting prescription, and the guidance set-up.  All these items are merely selected from a menu of choices, which have been previously set up in the office computer and transferred to the GS2630.

This is page 1 that I watch during planting. On the right side, you see a window giving the tracking or guidance information. The main part of the screen shows that the back tank of seed is in operation, and the front is shut off. ( I plant from one tank at a time ). The prescription is calling for 55.5 pounds of seed per acre, and the meter is currently applying 55.1. The speed of the blower that delivers seed from the meter to the soil is at 2950 rpm. The planter is moving at 5.7 mph, and the machine is planting at a rate of 34.3 acres/hour.

Page 2. This gives the guidance (AutoTrac) information in a larger format.  The little tractor icon is right on the white line of track #4.  The green bar at the bottom represents the planter.  As the field is planted, it “paints” the field blue.   See the little green circle with an “A” in it?  That means that AutoTrac is set up properly and is engaged in guiding the tractor.

Page 3. This is a map of the entire field. This shows two layers of information. The background green and yellow is the planting prescription. The yellow will plant at 55.5 lb/ac, the green is 66.7 lb/ac. The blue in the foreground shows the area that has been covered by the planter. You can see that the field perimeter has already been planted. Along the NE side, some point rows have been filled in, and the little green circle shows the position of the planter as it moves to the northwest along this track #4.  In the boxes at the upper right, you can see this is the “Dunn farm, Below Terrace field”.

These pages are set up by the operator, and each farmer may choose from many different formats to view the information they deem important.

I’ll include some soybean planting pictures from this good week.

Re-filling the big yellow tanks in the field

John took the wheel for a couple hours on Tuesday.

View to the right rear as planting occurs

I had a visitor on Tuesday evening. Trey Baker came for a tractor ride

During a brief stop on the Downen farm to check on one of the many WASCoBs there, I captured this image of the planting rig.

All in all, it was a great week.  The soybeans went in very nicely, in good soil conditions.  Now, for a happy  0.5 to 1.0 inch of rain!   We will see what this weekend brings.  It has rained a little already, and looks like more on the way.  We will see what comes…

I’m preparing the Friday paychecks, getting the property tax spring installment ready, and reconciling the books with the bank statement.  There’s always something that needs attention…

Have a great weekend.